


Apparition’s House

by GrimHeaperr



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, Blood, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen, Ghosts, M/M, Major Character Injury, SHEITH - Freeform, black manor au, fake spiders, ghost hunters au, gkVHFF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 01:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12378087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrimHeaperr/pseuds/GrimHeaperr
Summary: Lance manages to convince Keith to go to a haunted house. Keith thought he said the ghosts were fake.(A sort-of epilogue toBlack Manor.)





	Apparition’s House

**Author's Note:**

> No beta I'll just die.
> 
> My second fic for my [fic-fest](http://grimkohai.tumblr.com/post/165375632444/hello-everyone-october-is-hands-down-my-favorite)! I realized I've been posting them a day late... sigh. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this! I wrote it to where you can read this without reading Black Manor, but a few lines reference to what happened in the fic in here. Just assumed something bad happened in Black Manor LOL.
> 
> [Black Manor](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11986641/chapters/27115095) // [A Witch's Mausoleum](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12312618)

Keith moved the last of the composition books from the bottom floor, sweat dribbling down his face and collecting on the collar of his red sweater as he placed the box on his new desk. The Paranormal Investigation Club could no longer comfortably fit in the basement storage room. Keith put in a formal request to change rooms and after Coran had ignored them for three weeks, Pidge slammed open his office door and demanded a change, having the last straw of Hunk touching her personal tech equipment.

Their new headquarters hand more walking space between the furniture, but barely. Shelves lined the wall next to the door, and on the wall closest to the door, Coran left a gap before he assembled a bared cubby for the club’s equipment. Keith and Pidge’s desks were on the back wall, Pidge’s in the corner and Keith’s in the middle, the mini fridge separating their spaces. A line of student desks was cluttered on the other side of Keith’s desk. A short table was shoved in front of Pidge’s desk for Hunk, and a small circular table was to be used by Shiro and Lance. The floor was covered in a tacky green carpet and the walls were an aged orange. The lights would flicker every now and then, but Keith wasn’t complaining. He could actually feel the A/C when everyone was in the room, and that’s all that mattered.

He heard the ruffle of plastic and turned around. Shiro walked through the door with two bags from the gas station that was located across the street from the university. His jacket was tied around his waist and his hunter green shirt stuck to his chest from perspiration. Keith could see the regret from wearing jeans today.

“Maybe someday Texas will have normal fall weather,” Keith commented as Shiro dug out an orange soda from one of the bags. He handed it to Keith as Lance walked through the door, or tried to.

He grunted as he shoved the bean ag chair through the doorframe, working up a sweat in the process despite the A/C of the room.

“Who’s idea was it to have the bean bag anyway?” he complained as he plopped it in front of their half-full bookshelf.

“No one. It was there in the storage room before we made it our club room,” Pidge said, not bothering with the boxes she brought in, and making a beeline for her desk in the corner of the room, “So we’re technically stealing it.”

Shiro chuckled at that.

“Where’s Hunk?” Keith asked, taking a drink of soda before getting to work on organizing the composition books. He heard Shiro pass out drinks.

“In his last class. He’ll help out when he gets here,” Lance answered.

“Pidge can you out his stuff in the fridge?” Shiro handed Pidge the pineapple-flavored water and chocolate bar.

“Sure.”

Lance, Shiro, and Keith went to work with getting things out of boxes and onto the walls or shelves. Keith noticed a few notebooks were missing and fished for empty pages in the books to tear and mark where the missing notebooks would go. Shiro busied himself with hanging up the paranormal and alien memorabilia, along with a promotional poster that was gifted to the club from someone who worked at Alfor’s Electronics. Lance checked all the equipment and if batteries were charged, he put them to charge are replaced dead batteries. He set the tripod and voice recorders in the cage cubby that Coran assembled for them to use to store their equipment. While they did this, Pidge was writing the report for the mausoleum when Hunk entered.

“This is really starting to feel homey,” he said, shrugging off his backpack and setting it on his table, “I should have whipped something up to make it really feel like home.”

“Save it for the Halloween party. We can go all out.”

“Halloween party?” Keith repeated, confused. Lance shot him a smirk.

“Yes! How could our host forget about his own Halloween party?”

Keith’s confused expression flattened. Pidge snorted and Shiro looked at Lance with an uneasy face.

“I don’t remember agreeing to this.”

Lance walked over and slung an arm over Keith’s shoulders. “Your house is perfect for a club party! We can marathon movies, gorge ourselves on candy that I’ll buy, and you don’t have neighbors that’ll complain about the noise because they are directly on the other side of the wall!” he reasoned.

“Sounds like fun,” Pidge sipped on her juice pouch.

“I’ll make some Halloween themed treats and your favorite food,” Hunk bargained. He wanted the party as much as Lance did, but didn’t want to push Keith. Maybe a little.

Keith looked to Shiro to get his input. He smiled sheepishly. “It’s your house, baby,” he said, “I could probably ask my nana if she’d be okay with the party at my place.” Keith read between the lines and sighed.

“My place it is, I guess.”

Lance whooped. He reached into his back pocket and unfolded a flyer. “To celebrate Keith’s willingness to being social, I say we go to a haunted house.”

“No,” Keith said curtly, an air of tension surrounding him.

“Why not?”

“Lance,” Pidge warned. Shiro turned from the poster he had hung up. He wondered why Pidge’s tone took a sour turn.

“You hunt ghosts for a living! These are fake ghosts. It’ll be fun.”

Keith’s heart beat faster thinking about going. It’s not that he hated haunted houses, and he definitely wasn’t afraid of them. The haunted houses were meant to be scary to stimulate fear, but sometimes Keith would forget it’s all fake. Sometimes the setting would cause him to have a vision or go completely unresponsive.

“Let’s take a vote,” Lance said as Keith’s heart plummeted into his stomach.

Lance rose his hand, and since he came as a pair, Hunk did too. Shiro shyly brought his hand up, and Keith didn’t let the hurt trace his features. Shiro didn’t know, and Keith was too proud to admit why he didn’t like haunted houses. Keith’s eyes glanced over Shiro’s scarred arm. Keith crossed his arms and squeezed, fingernails digging into his skin. He still felt guilty about Black Manor, guilty about Shiro not having any feeling in his arm anymore and that his traumatic experience now had an altar on his body. Keith didn’t say anything as Lance started to speak again.

“Three beats two—“

“Congrats on the math.”

“Shut up, Keith,” Lance said with no bite, “We’re all going, and I can probably bribe my mom so we can use the family van.”

Hunk nodded seriously. “The swagger-wagon.”

Keith snorted, and the sound sliced through the tension of the room.

“When are we going?” Shiro asked.

Lance’s eyes glittered with excitement.

“Friday.”

As promised, Lance showed up to Keith’s house with his mother’s van, the white aged and rusted. Various graduation tassels cluttered the rearview mirror and Lance had hurriedly vacuumed the snack crumbs from the faded grey interior. On the ceiling were crayon, marker, and color pencil scratches, and Keith recognized Lance’s handwriting in its blue color pencil.

“This looks well lived in,” Pidge commented as she sat in the middle row. Coloring pages were shoved in the car seat pouch in front of her.

“She’s been holding out since the crash of ’86.”

“She’s aged pretty well,” Shiro said, awkwardly making his way to the third row. He was too tall to fit comfortably, but he had to respect Hunk’s shotgun.

“Hasn’t she?” Lance said dreamily.

Once Keith slid the van door shut, Lance pulled out from Keith’s street and took the road out of town. Lance played a mix of pop and Spanish music, singing along loudly to every song that played. Shiro and Keith held hands in the back row while Pidge had her own headphones in watching YouTube videos. Somewhere along the way, Keith had fallen asleep and when they got to the haunted house, the sun was a fire dipping low on the horizon.

“We’re here guys,” Lance said as he pulled into a dirt parking lot. He found a spot way back and turned off the van. It shuddered before it finally shut off completely.

Pidge stretched her arms and yawned. Shiro rolled his shoulder as Keith rubbed the sleep from his eyes. They all piled out of the van and Keith could smell popcorn and hear faint music. The excitement from the group was starting to be infectious to him as they made their way to the back of the line. A sign on the wooden fence that hid the house from view said 25 MINUTES in thick black sharpie.

Lance was teeming with energy as he shifted from side to side on his feet. Hunk talked to Pidge about equipment while Shiro rubbed circles into Keith’s lower back. Keith leaned into his touch.

“Do you think it’ll be scary?” Shiro asked, his voice tinged with amusement.

Keith heard a scream that gave him goosebumps but chuckled nonetheless. “Not as scary as the things I’ve been through.”

Shiro let Keith’s statement sit for a while before replying. “I guess it’ll be a hard experience to beat when you’ve lived through real hauntings.”

“Something like that.”

When they got to the front, a tall woman dressed as Poison Ivy gasped.

“I know you!” she pointed at Keith, who in return gave her a startled look. “You’re the Garrison Ghost Hunter!” She stuttered out his name in awe. Keith felt himself turn warm at the recognition. Her eyes scanned the rest of them and she put her hands to her face and gasped. “Y’all are the Paranormal Investigation Club! You’re here! I don’t believe this!” The woman turned around. “Acxa! Look!”

A woman who wore a vampire costume looked up from counting the money in the cash box. Her neutral expression didn’t change, but Keith saw the glimmer in her eyes. Keith watched as she put the money down and handed the box to a person in a black cloak in front of her.

“Do you mind if we get a picture? We loved your investigation at Black Manor! So spooky! We’ve been watching your videos since you started!” Keith rubbed his neck sheepishly.

“Sure,” he said, not bothering to ask if it was okay with everyone.

Poison Ivy asked someone behind them to take their photo. She wrapped her arm around Keith’s shoulder and posed seductively while Acxa stood beside Pidge. The flash on the phone went off and Poison Ivy excitedly took her phone back. She looked at the photo with satisfaction.

“I’m Ezor, by the way! It’s nice to meet you all!” She shook hands with everyone but lingered on Keith’s hand. Shiro smiled to himself at the spectacle. Keith felt awkward at the attention. “You guys get to go in free!”

“Sweet!” Lance exclaimed. He’s just glad he can keep his twenty-five dollars.

Ezor nodded. Acxa rolled her eyes with no mirth. “It’s the Ghost Hunter Discount.” Ezor winked at Keith who stiffened.

“Thanks,” he said awkwardly.

Ezor walked them to the Haunted House, asking prodding questions about Keith and a few interesting questions about their recent investigation.

“Not much to share than what we already released, really,” Keith said. Ezor’s eyes narrowed but she didn’t drop her smile. Ezor was trying to befriend Keith for her own uses, but Keith was hard to befriend. She took her gaze to Shiro, and the man just shrugged.

“We release all information from our investigations.”

“We’re not exactly censored,” Pidge added.

“That’s so cool! I hope you guys enjoy the Haunted House!” With that, Ezor left. When she was out of earshot, the group laughed.

“I think she set her sights on you, Keith,” Pidge said humorously.

“She must be blind,” Lance commented, ego hurt, “She should know your love is for the ghosts and Shiro.”

“Thanks, guys,” he said flatly.

After he said that, the haunted house’s front door slammed open. Lance yelped and jumped onto Hunk, who caught him effortlessly despite also being scared. A tall, broad shoulder woman leaned out, two battery-powered lanterns in her strong hands. She was dressed in an 80’s workout costume, her thick hair teased into a loose ponytail.

“Only five of you?” she asked. She didn’t wait for a yes or no. She turned off one of the lanterns and stepped out of the house. She handed Keith the illuminated lantern. “Go in. I’ll be waiting for you on the other side.” The woman left them in front of the open door as she made her way around the back of the house.

Hunk set Lance down. Lance straightened out his shirt as the group watched her leave with puzzled expressions.

“I guess that’s that.”

Keith lead the group into the house. Shiro shut the door behind them. Fake fog covered the floor so thickly Keith couldn’t see his shoes. A few doors were blocked off, but the upstairs wasn’t. A strobe light flashed in one of the downstairs rooms. Keith couldn’t see anything that wasn’t immediately within the lights reach. It made him uneasy.

“It’s now or never guys,” Pidge said. She pulled out her phone and used the flashlight to guide her way to one of the rooms. The group split off, Pidge going left while Hunk and Lance went right, leaving Keith and Shiro at the front door.

“Are you nervous?” Shiro asked lowly. Keith shook his head.

“Not really. Are you?” Keith didn’t see Shiro glance up the stairs. He thought he saw the outline of a figure, but didn’t say anything thinking it was a worker.

Pidge screamed before she started to laugh.

“Not really. Let’s go upstairs.”

Shiro took the lantern from Keith and headed upstairs. When they got to the top, Keith was prepared for something to happen, but nothing did. He was too tense to sense the figure on his right as Shiro lead him to the left. Another strobe light was at the end of the hall, giving the furniture creeping shadows and making the hall seem smaller than it actually was. Keith’s heart beat in his chest as Shiro pulled him into a room.

Keith could feel the fake cobwebs in his hair and he freaked out. Shiro chuckled.

“It’s fake, baby,” Shiro pulled a fake spider from its web, and the spider turned out to be a ring. “Here,” Shiro took Keith’s free hand and slipped the black spider onto his finger. The plastic dug into his finger, but Keith fingered he could cling onto the feeling if he got lost in his own mind.

“Thanks,” Keith flexed his fingers, and for a moment, he thought he saw the ring move.

Shiro lead them around the dusty room, the two of them laughing at the fake decorations but impressed with the number of rubber tarantulas arranged to crawl out from a vent. As the left the room, that same shadowy lingered behind them.

In the next room, mirrors lined the wall. The lantern light reflected and illuminated the room. Shiro peered into each of his reflections, finding the trick mirror that made his body morph into oblong shapes. Shiro turned around to call Keith over, but when he saw his boyfriend, his blood turned to ice.

An apparition trailed behind Keith. Its black mass wasn’t reflected in the mirror, but in the light of the lantern, he could see its transparent black mass.

“Keith!”

The next few seconds happen in slow motion. Keith turned from the mirror, a slight smile on his face. Shiro watched as recognition dawned on his features and he turned. The presence of the apparition made Keith take a wobbling step back. It let out a loud, ear-splitting screech and the mirrors shattered. Shards of glass cut Keith and Shiro as they fell, and the force of the scream made Keith fall to the floor, elbows deep in the sharp shards.

Shiro heard thundering footsteps as he ran to Keith, cradling his bleeding boyfriend in his arms.

Keith hissed as he felt the warmth of his blood dribble down his arm.

“What the hell was that?”

“I saw an apparition,” Shiro explained, “I’m surprised you didn’t,”

“Are you guys okay?” Pidge’s worried voice interrupted.

“Why did you guys break the mirrors?” Lance accused lightheartedly.

“That’s a lot of bad luck,” Hunk added.

“We didn’t break anything,” Keith said.

“Oh my god, you’re bleeding,” Pidge approached Keith and kneeled down, inspecting his arm.

“Yes,” Keith said, patience wearing thin. Shiro helped him up. Shiro felt nauseous at the thought of Keith’s blood on his hands, not because it made him queasy, but because that’s his boyfriend. His boyfriend is hurt.

“We have to get out of here. Now.” Shiro insisted, and no one seemed to want to argue.

Shiro lead Keith down the stairs as Pidge guided them with the lantern.

“Are we running?”

The group shot Lance a sharp look.

“Considering we have zero equipment, yes, we are running, Lance,” Keith said disdainfully. Lance put his hands up in surrender.

“What was it?” Pidge asked, note app already open on her phone.

“It was an apparition. I guess it was following Keith. It screamed and shattered the mirrors,” Shiro explained. Pidge tapped away on her phone.

“This place had an ouija board and a fake blood-stained planchet in one of the rooms. I guess someone actually had a session.”

An acidic taste rolled into Keith’s mouth at the mention of an ouija board. “That explains this then,” he heaved out a sigh as Pidge opened the door.

Acxa turned around, confused until she saw the blood dripping from Keith’s arm. She scowled.

“Ezor, we have a problem,” Ezor turned from the boy she was flirting with, her sultry face quickly changing into a surprised horror.

“Oh my god!” Ezor turned to the last few people in the line, an apologetic smile on her face. “Sorry everyone, the Haunted House is on hold. We don’t know when it’ll be safe to go in again, but we will be open again tomorrow night.” A few people gasped as they spotted Keith, and a few people gagged at the sight of the shards in his arms. They would have thought he was a part of the haunted house if Keith didn’t have a pained look on his face.

Acxa called emergency services as the crowd thinned. Ezor took the lantern and shut it off, setting it near their makeshift table that held their cashbox. The person in the cloak wiped up the blood from Keith’s arm with a damp napkin silently.

“I am so sorry, Keith,” Ezor apologized, “Nothing was supposed to happen. Or, nothing has happened. We’ve been running this since late September. Please don’t sue.”

Keith smiled at her light-heartedly and strained. “It’s alright, don’t worry about it.”

“Yeah, he’s a real magnet for angry ghosts,” Lance said to cheer her up. Hunk nodded.

“Even when he isn’t trying, ghosts seem to flock to him.”

“On the bright side, you can charge more because the place is actually haunted,” Pidge said, “It’ll add to the novelty.”

The woman in the cloak chuckled along with Ezor. Keith felt his skin prick at their laughter. Something told him that the girls knew it was haunted.

He watched them talk distrustfully. He turned to his group of friends, and he could tell they all thought the same thing.

“Do you think you would be able to come and cleansed the place?”

There it is.

Keith looked up to the second story window. A vague shape looked back at him, and a familiar feeling bubbled in his chest. He could feel the apparition’s malice.

Out of spite, Keith wanted to say no, and for the record, the whole group thought he was going to decline. Instead, Keith said, “You’d have to call our advisor to set up an investigation.”

The group tried to hide their smiles, but Lance and Pidge were failing. Acxa, Ezor and the cloaked women exchanged expressions before turning back to Keith. The ambulance pulled up to the curb.

“Sounds like a promise, Keith,” Ezor flashed him a sharp smile.

Keith was ushered by Shiro toward the EMT’s. In the ambulance, the EMTs cleaned and extracted the shards of glass. The piece of mirror that sat in Keith’s forearm needed stitches. The EMT’s told Keith they could they could drive him to the hospital, but he declined. Shiro promised to take him, and the EMT’s released Keith.

The line was nonexistent and the girls were gone, leaving Lance, Hunk, and Pidge on the curb.

“I’m really disappointed in you Keith,” Lance said. Keith looked confused. “You didn’t scream at least once, nor are you crying after having glass pulled from your arm. You’re stone cold, man.” Keith chuckled.

“I did my screaming and crying when you joined. I’m all cried out.”

“Ha-ha,” he deadpanned, “Are we ready to go? Does Keith need to go to the hospital?”

Keith was going to say no until Shiro said yes.

“Maybe someday we’ll have a normal outing that doesn’t end in a paranormal investigation,” Pidge said as they made their way toward Lance’s family van in the empty parking lot.

“Maybe our outings should be confined to each other’s houses.”

Keith thought about never leaving his bed again. “Sounds fine with me.”

“If it means Keith will stop getting hurt, I wouldn’t mind that,” Shiro said, putting his arm around his tired boyfriend. Keith’s hair tickled his arm and the low light cast shadows on his face. Keith moved to walk closer to Shiro, hips bumping.

“I’m fine,” Keith said quietly. He slowed his pace so they walked behind the rest of the group.

Shiro placed a chaste kiss to Keith’s temple. “I know, baby, but you’re still getting those stitches.”

“The nurse said she’s not going to give me another soda from the cafeteria this time,” he said, chuckling, “I’m pretty sure the doctor is also tired of seeing me.”

The doctor in the Garrison hospital was the only doctor, and he mostly dealt with the elderly and children’s broken bones. Keith keeps giving him a run for his money every time he walks into the two-story hospital. Dr. Daniels told him that he was going to have to employ another doctor in a tired voice.

“I think it’s more of he’s worried about your well-being, baby,” Shiro chuckled lightly.

“Hey, lovebirds, not a date,” Lance said as he peered from above the van.

“We’re all on a date here, technically,” Hunk said, a light blush high on his cheeks, “You were going to pay for all of us, and now we’re going to Caramel Cocina because your dad said we can all get free milkshakes for Keith’s birthday.”

“It’s not my birthday,” Keith said, a small smile on his lips.

“Isn’t it?” Lance said as he sat down behind the wheel.

Hunk started to clap, and Pidge joined offbeat. Shiro sang a horrible rendition of the Birthday Song along with them while Lance made trumpet noises with his mouth as they pulled out of the parking lot. Keith laughed so hard he started to snort, the pain in his arm numb while he rode his endorphins. The van filled with their laughter as they left the haunted house.

From the window, the apparition continued to stare at the van until it disappeared on the horizon line. A drop of rain fell on the pane, and then another until the rain washed the image of the apparition away.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! All mistakes are my own! Once I read through this I'll fix everything... it's so late...
> 
> If you liked this fic, you can like/reblog it [here](http://grimkohai.tumblr.com/post/166448754464/apparitions-house)!
> 
> I finally got a working idea for the sequel I'll be writing sometime next year... this is me testing the waters lol.
> 
> You can follow/talk to me on [twitter](http://www.twitter.com/grimkohai) or [tumblr](http://ww.grimkohai.tumblr.com)!


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